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Tomorrow morning I am giving birth for the first time, to my adopted baby. The baby was conceived via IVF by Lutherans who knew not what they did; then the wife died suddenly, and the husband had the natural impulse not to sign his child over for destruction but to call an adoption agency. Our adoption agency. So, as with all adoption there is sadness that baby's story begins with loss - first in the clutches of the ivf industry, then losing its mother and being separated from its biological father... but also great gladness and joy that God created this little one and its earthly father chose

If there is one funny thing you are able to enjoy on the internet today, let it be this. I have literally been laughing about this for HOURS.

For anyone interested in some well reasoned guidance on such issues, the Congregation for Catholic Education's 2019 document Male and Female He Created Them has some very nice guidance, which I will attach in this post (apologies if it's been referenced earlier, I skimmed the thread and didn't see it mentioned, and in fact saw ppl suggesting the church has avoided saying anything on the subject, this document and the sources it cites should be a starting point for looking at what kind of guidance the church has given); while directed at educational institutions, it gives a good treatment of qu

There was no need to prematurely assume the worst of all of us in this regard before letting the thread take its course. I remain faithful to every teaching of the Catholic Church, felt that a warm welcome was prudent, and trusted the thread would have its way as it sees fit. Keep in mind that some may want to take the time and space to give it some thought before asking any questions. It's not a subject meant to be treated rashly or lightly. It's not like Phatmass doesn't have threads that literally last for over 10 years around here, so....

It's possible. Yes, most orders/monasteries require that an applicant have been Catholic for 2 or 3 years. It's also normal for an applicant to 'get to know' a monastery for several years before joining. But those don't have to be done sequentially. I suggest: 1. You contact your nearest Catholic church and inquire about the RCIA program. These are weekly classes, usually beginning in August or so, in which you learn the basics (essentials) of the Catholic faith. You get baptized on Holy Saturday evening at the Easter vigil. 2. Simultaneously, begin scouting up religious orde

whenever I hear these arguments I cannot think about how, outside of a very small historical context and out of a very small minority of people who could afford it, a single-parent "earner" or "provider" is just not possible. Not even close to possible for most people, throughout most of history. Also, what if a woman could make a more comfortable living than her husband? Is it better for him to work two or three job and almost never see his kids? If fatherhood is so important, and I believe it is, isn't having the father spend time with his children equally, if not more, important than m

Phatmass insists on making a word "cr*ap" into "croutons".

This is a great point. This writer is still is school and is not yet able to follow his/her vocation. What I suggest is to quit talking about the vocation and focusing on doing your daily duty and growing in virtue. Grow in holiness. All of us are called to do this, no matter what situation we are in, including the person entering next week. I do not think that would constitute a double life. Then, if the talking about the vocation stops, the harassment may stop, at least until that time when entering is imminent.

Perhaps one indication of the maturity necessary to pursue and persevere in religious life is to deal with these kinds of pressures? Part of growing up is to respect your parents, of course--but not to allow them to order your life as if you were still a child. I'm not sure how old you are, but if you are an adult then they need to learn not to live your life vicariously. And you need the maturity to consider what they say, but not necessarily let it govern your life anymore.

I didn't like the rosary too much either and hardly ever pray it, yet when I spent time with a community that prays it together daily, it was a beautiful thing to do, very meditative and not boring at all. So there might be some spiritual development for you, too And if it doesn't happen to be the case with you - surely there are other forms of prayer that lead you into a deeper friendship and love with the Lord. As Benedict XVI put it: "There are as many ways to the Lord as people on earth!"

Really?!! This makes me feel much better. Thank you! Maybe eventually I'll start praying the Rosary in honor of Our Lady like St. Therese, but for now if I've got 15 extra minutes I'll spend them praying Vespers or Scripture.

Just wanted to weigh in on the Rosary bit St. Therese actually couldn't stand to pray it--in fact, she thought of it as a hair shirt! But she prayed it anyway in a spirit of humility and obedience in order to honor Our Blessed Mother.

Since when did this thread turn into one discussing breast size? Lol, let's try to get back on topic

Church doctrine is clear on this matter You haven’t convinced me that all men secretly wish they had breasts.

I had SAS shoes...super orthopedic

You say "double effect", but I hear "the end justifies the means". What the surgeon does in these circumstance is permanent mutilation to allow someone to tell a lie with their own body. I heard the story of someone who had developed the idea that she ought to be blind. The psychiatrist decided that it was best for her mental state that she be blinded, and did so. The end result is neither acceptable for her mental state or for her body. The same goes with trans surgeries and therapies.

Sterilization and mutilation of perfectly healthy body parts is deeply wrong on many levels.

Welcome. I have no questions for you. Surprise!

We are moving towards a dictatorship... We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires. Pope Benedict XVI

Those are kids from a village in Uganda I helped get clean water. Along with the two Pastors I mentioned earlier in the thread. Not virtual signaling but we've helped a bunch of villages get clean water in the last 3 years. The need for clean water is great over there. If anyone reading this wants to help out let me know.

I'm sorry that you're going through this! As a seminarian who has experienced and seen this a million times over from the side of seminarians and female friends of mine, I know your pain. Unfortunately it's just going to smell of elderberries for a while, and that's okay. I find situations like this frustrating because it leads to a lot of unnecessary pain. My educated guess is that he A) likely had romantic feelings for you, had a conversation with a formator or spiritual director, and decided to cease all contact with you to give himself room to think or B) realized you had romantic fee

I'm going to post this today now that I'm in a more charitable mood, but it's just a general note regarding people that lurk anonymously and report and ask us to censor people that aren't violating any laws or phorum rules. It's an alarming trend, and in the many years I've been here I've never seen people ask for censorship in this manner until recently. As I've said before, we're not facebook or twitter. I don't recall us ever picking and choosing how people were allowed to discuss current events in that way, and I for one am not going to follow that trend now. I would rather see peopl

Conversion begins from repentance, the word that seems to be hugely forgotten in Roman Catholic Church in the West nowadays, unfortunately. One who is full of himself cannot know God's love. There is no place for God to enter; the realization of own sickness provides a necessary "crack" for God. It is simply the need "help me!" You are omitting the fundamental point: one does not need "perfectly conform to everything that it teaches" to be in the Church; one only needs to realize that he is not "perfectly conforming to everything that it teaches" i.e. his own sinfulness. You ignore th

I think my point on soul/body dualism really should be revisited here, as from the Catholic perspective this is THE issue on the table, one that's relevant both for transgenderism and for Catholics at large who also generally have mistaken perspectives on this, a kind of ghost-in-the-machine thinking is very common especially today. While you replied to my post that you don't see soul/body mismatch as the issue, many of the things you have said, @CuriositasEtFidem, seem to reveal such soul/body (or at least mind/body) dualistic thinking. I can hardly blame you as this kind of mindset is so p

I think you're overestimating the control you have over this. It kinda seems like a kid is trying to start a club that no one really wants to be in and starts whinging when the only people that show up don't fit his vision. I'm only here to poke and prod and have a little bit of fun.

bro . . . what's the fun in that?

Welcome. Are you machine washable on a cold or a hot cycle?

What do you mean as if she wasn't in the room? @fides' Jack told her that she was on the road to hell. It don't get more in the room than that!

Has a spiritual director approved a penance that amplifies and/or inflicts physical pain? If not, it would not be advisable to undertake. And...there is also respecting the wishes of your parents. You are partaking in the Lenten fast but they have specifically asked you to refrain from extra penance in their name. Without the advisement of a spiritual director (which it sounds like you do not have), you should respect the wishes of your parents. You need to speak to your priest and a spiritual director. What you are outlining is not particularly healthy or coming from a healthy minds

So I just created a new account here. I had one back in 07' until I entered the convent in 09'. I was in the convent for four years and after I came home, I met and fell in love with someone I actually met on this forum. We got married almost four years ago and are now pregnant with our second child. For some reason, today I felt drawn to see if I could log into my old account. Unfortunately, I don't remember my password and the e-mail account it was connected to doesn't exist anymore. I was able to search through old posts and read what I had written in the past and remember the old friends I

Welcome to Phatmass. I'm pretty "trad" in my own kind of way, and as a part of how I understand the traditional faith delivered for millenia I am entirely unwilling to leave the visible unity of the Catholic Church under the jurisdiction of the Vicar of Christ. In 1966, Pope Saint John XXIII worked an astonishing miracle for a religious called Sister Caterina Capitani, whose illness led to most of her stomach, pancreas, and spleen being removed. Only three years after his death - and many years before any hypothesis of sedevacantism ever existed - he appeared at her beside (which was to h

I know it may seem hard to separate from family, but remember: Normally, in life, most people do move away from home, sometimes very far, and it's not easy or practical to travel long distances to meet up frequently. I, for example, moved from my hometown of Washington DC to NYC and found even a monthly trip to be a major undertaking -- then I moved to the UK, and after that to Israel -- and only saw my parents three times after that, and I'm not in religious life! Parents age and die. My father passed in 1988, my mother in 1980. This is going to happen to everyone, no matter wher

Saint Valentine

Here's a new video of a recent Mass of consecration to a life of virginity in the Diocese of Palm Beach, Florida. Simi is the first consecrated virgin for the Diocese of Palm Beach, and is also (to my knowledge) the first Syro-Malabar consecrated virgin in the United States.

Tomorrow I find out the sex of my baby before work. I'm gonna wear blue if it's a girl and pink if it's a boy and ask them to guess when they see me and be like NOPE! GENDER STEREOTYPES ARE FAKE!!!!

Cannot resist to add another cat video, a theological one PS Strange, I again lost the ability to insert videos in a way they actually show as such.

As an Orthodox I am compelled to say that this is sure road to "plelest", a spiritual self-delusion based on pride (I am not trying to be offensive, it is an accepted Orthodox definition). First, we are not the Virgin Mary who could not sin, is full of grace and a distributor of grace, she is "higher than seraphim and cherubim" so one naturally looks up to her feeling own impurity and asking her to aid with acquiring purity. Yet she is our Mother so we can talk to her in a very intimate way. Second, one cannot pray to oneself, this is an antithesis of a prayer. Prayer is all about reaching fo

For what it's worth, I know a whole lot of sisters who never pray the rosary. You DO need to have a personal prayer life, of course, but it doesn't need to include the Rosary. Obviously, I'm not speaking of communities which say the Rosary in common or which mandate it. But most communities these days encourage flexibility in personal prayer.

I'm thinking of replying from now on exclusively in comic form lol, I need the practice

I'm learning that little2add has chosen his or her name wisely

I have a graduate degree in developmental psychology and have never encountered evidence of what you suggest here. Of course mothers are indispensable but everything I have read says that men, fathers in particular, are also absolutely indispensable to the proper development of children. He cannot be replaced. In some areas the father plays the more important role; in his absence the mother's efforts in these areas seem to be in large part futile. It is not an accident that God shows Himself to us as Father. The relationship with Him is essential, He is the most natural of nurturers, ev

Hotter shoes are very comfortable and last years. You can get them online. But I agree with asking the community for their recommendations.

If you have to wear a standardized shoe, ask the community you're entering where they get them--or the brand. Most of my friends don't wear habits, so they wear trainers or comfortable dress shoes most of the time, depending on what they are doing, or wearing. I've found that sisters don't wear anything "universally," so check with the community.

Cobbie Cuddlers. All nuns, universally, wear Cobbie Cuddlers. I think it's a requirement of one of the V2 documents. The sensible, comfortable, lace-up kind. (I have no idea what a Size 44 is; here in the US, shoes labeled Size 44 would be about as big as a steamboat!) https://www.google.com/search?q=cobbie+cuddler+shoes&rlz=1C1CHHF_enUS913US913&sxsrf=ALeKk0354msmdavvWKLeqseZZFyEiAgRgA:1612921758988&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=M47V5velR4VXSM%2CGm1hURtTuobb6M%2C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kSmMtYiPndiFKyaE1q_amqgebuOsQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiKrvrjmd7uAhXGmq0KHcFfDkg

Not the first time I've been told I'm going to Hell lol. I believe that God created me transgender, and it's taken a very long time to crawl out of the pit of self-hatred and anxiety that religious guilt had trapped me in. I'm not going back.

This is probably why the idea of having a Trans child is kind of a nightmare to me. By all means I support people who want to perform whatever gender stereotypes they wish, especially if it's the best chance for them to not kill themselves. But, the existence of Trans identity represents a profound failure of our society imo. Of parenting. Or of something. I want my child to love his/her body as perfect the way it is. Whereas Trans identity often involves a rejection or loathing of normal healthy body parts. I want my child to have the courage to live standing up with a certain profound

Hi, I'm not sure what country you're in, but perhaps from M&S? Or Timberland? What kind of shoes are you looking for? Walking? General use? Warm?

Welcome to phatmass. I help kill spam. Glad to see some refugees from CAF. I would visit there from time to time but as in real life, I prefer the friendliness of smaller groups.